Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2015.

Images(2)

I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals

Artist Catherine "Cappy" Thompson (American, b. 1952)

Date1997

MediumBlown and enameled glass

DimensionsHeight: 11 3/8 in. (28.9 cm)
Rim: 15 3/4 in. (40 cm)

ClassificationsGlass

Credit LineMuseum purchase and gift of the Peninsula Glass Guild

Object number97.45

Terms

Dreams
bears
Owls
City
Stars
Sky
Clear
Blue
Red
Yellow
Black
Orange
Tan
Various

Collections

Glass Art

On View

On view

DescriptionThis blown glass bowl with its flaring rim, is reverse painted in transparent polychrome enamel with a dream image depicting a sleeping figure (the artist) floating over Olympia, Washington, against a brilliant blue star-studded sky with moon; three bears are on the ground, and five owls sit in fir trees. The iconography is highly personal as it is derived from dreams that the artist had and recorded while she was in her twenties. The sleeping figure is a self-portrait; the blanket is decorated with mermaids holding a lotus - a personal trademark of the artist. The domed building represents the Washington State capital in Olympia, Washington. She sees bears as symbols of healing and the moon was personified by an Eskimo woman. "The vessel depicts me as a dreamer afloat in the night sky hovering above a townscape amid a Northwest forest where white owls are perched when a great celestial bear kisses me." --Cappy Thompson

Label TextCatherine "Cappy" Thompson American (b. 1952) I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals, 1997 Blown and enameled glass Museum purchase and gift of the Peninsula Glass Guild 97.45 Cappy Thompson came to glass as a painter and printmaker in 1975, when she began a summer job working in a stained glass studio near Olympia, Washington. Her fascination with both the subject and technique of medieval stained glass, typically a public art form, was quickly transferred to the intimate space of a vessel. Her images marry various cultural mythologies and her need for self-expression. Elements would drift up and assemble into picture-poems that seemed to have a life of their own. I began to "read" these works as reflections of the spiritual and psychological issues in my life. I painted members of my family and myself in a kind of autobiographical fantasy, working with the mythopoetic materials of my life. I cast myself into scenes from various world spiritual traditions. This bowl, with its highly personal narrative imagery, commemorates a series of vivid dreams that the artist recorded in her journal while she was in her twenties. Thompson is the dreamer floating in the night sky, her blanket decorated with her trademark lotus held by mermaids. The buildings below represent Olympia, the capital of Washington State. In her dreams, Thompson was kissed by a great celestial bear (she sees bears as symbols of healing), met the moon (personified by an Eskimo woman), and saw white owls in fir trees.